Formation of RNA and Proteins by High-Pressure Torsion: An Insight into the Origin of Life

对三种氨基酸(甘氨酸、谷氨酸和丝氨酸)采用高压扭转法。所有这些氨基酸都已经在不同的陨石中检测到。在实验的第一步，只选择了这些氨基酸的纯形式。对高压扭转处理后的材料进行了X射线衍射、拉曼光谱和核磁共振分析，为其聚合反应提供了证据。最重要的发现是甘氨酸生成乙醇，而选定的三种氨基酸的晶体结构被显著破坏。实验还在不同的温度(300K和423K)和压力(1，2和6 Gpa)下进行，发现压力和温度的提高会加速结构的变化。虽然在第一步的实验中没有发现氨基酸聚合和蛋白质形成的证据，但这些实验证实，在早期地球条件下存在的一些添加剂应该与材料混合，以检查聚合物的形成。此外，氨基酸是在干燥条件下检测的，但水是一个重要的添加剂，需要在未来的实验中考虑。

The high-pressure torsion method was applied to three amino acids (glycine, glutamic acid, and serine). All these amino acids were already detected in different meteorites. At the first step of the experiments, only pure forms of these amino acids were selected. The materials after processing by high-pressure torsion were examined by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance to find a piece of evidence for their polymerization. The most important finding was the formation of ethanol from glycine, while the crystal structures of three selected amino acids were significantly destroyed. The experiments were also conducted under different temperatures (300 K and 423 K) and pressures (1, 2 and 6 GPa) and it was found that enhancement of pressure and temperature can accelerate the structural changes. Although no evidence for the polymerization of amino acids and the formation of protein was achieved in the first step of experiments, these experiments confirmed that some additives which were present in the early Earth conditions should be mixed with the materials to examine the formation of polymers. Moreover, the amino acids were examined n dry conditions, but water is an important additive that needs to be considered in coming experiments.